Nothing can stop God.
HE's gonna use us if we'll let HIM.
Aside from the pandemic and riots, we’ve been blessed to continue moving forward with the mission God has given us. Both Julia and I have taken courses during the lockdown. I took a semester course in “Perspectives on the World Christian Movement” for which I gained a certificate and Julia took a semester course in “Foundations in Oil Painting”.
We also continued prayer walking neighborhoods and witnessed an amazing response from the people. So many were completely fearless as they received prayers in the name of Jesus. It seemed like people were thinking, “if they’re with Jesus they must be clean”. So, they would invite us up to their porch to pray. One man ran out of his home to stop us on the sidewalk. He asked, “Are you praying for people?” It seems he had heard of us so we were able to pray with him too.
Once restrictions lifted we went right into outreach mode. First was Global Outreach Day that was hosted at our home church here in KC (Grace Point Baptist Church). During this event, we organized prayer walks with games and food and Genesis 1-1 also hosted an Outdoor Open Studio. The whole thing was a huge success! New families started going to church and new artists were discovered. We’ve been blessed to help with half dozen outreach events through Grace Point. All of which where a great success to the communities we reached.
GX International has been getting a new look with websites and personnel. Everyone took part in creating little videos of our personal stories so the ministry could stay engaged with society. The interview processes continued so GX was able to bring two new dancers into the ministry with the potential for more staff to come. During lock-down GX took to the homeless and handed out food bags. Every week there was something going on where the ministry was able to help the community during lock-down. Again, once restrictions were lifted, it was back to hip-hop. The dancers were able to tour South Dakota and Minneapolis and we’ve continued to have dance outreaches here locally in Kansas City. The GX Facebook Page has all the reports and videos for this.
Genesis 1-1 Fine Art ministry recently had a huge event. Julia put together a Young Artists Workshop that actually ran more like a 4-Day Intensive. This all ended with the young artists hosting their own gallery event. The workshop was based on the Genesis chapter 1 Days of Creation, of course. The artists all got trained on how to present the Gospel of Jesus through the days of creation using their very own art work. And They All Did It! It was so much fun to watch these young artists, ages 5-14, guide people through the gallery as they shared Jesus and their love for art.
The whole time of preparation and running the workshop was a blessing in itself. The Genesis 1-1 Team came to life and it turns out we have more committed to the ministry than we thought. Excited for our next steps. Julia has committed this year to creating a lot of art both for showing and selling. One thing we would like to do is start selling art so others can enjoy it too and also generate extra income. This will initially start by posting photos in the FOR SALE photo album at the Genesis 1-1 Facebook page.
We were able to make a trip to St. Paris, Ohio and surprise my Aunt Rosie for her birthday. It was like a mini family reunion that my cousins put together. We had so much fun but weren't able to spend enough time with everyone. We did have an opportunity to visit a church in this small town. The First Baptist Church of St. Paris. For a small town church, this one is really able to get a lot done. We’re always blessed when we visit. On this trip, we met Ron & Rita Massie. Ron makes wooden toys for “Toys for God’s Kids”. When he found out we were headed to Cinicinati for a mission trip, he gave us a box of wooden cars for the children we came across.